The other morning at breakfast my friend Richard the intellectual laid down his newspaper and said, ‘I thought you told me you and Jack Betts were friends?’ I looked up. ‘We are.’ ‘Have you read his article in the…

That was a flash of steel Governor Perdue showed, firing Kenneth Lay. And there may be more to come. John Hood of the John Locke Foundation said at the John Locke Luncheon Wednesday that a Republican legislature could be…

I thought it was my job to be the skunk at the garden party: yesterday’s John Locke Foundation “Headliners Luncheon.” Then Mr. Herbert Hoover Rosser (yes, his real name) stood up. I was the token Democrat on the panel.…

Carter, if you and I are going to start being all reasonable with each other, we’re going to lose our readers! Your response poses a question I can’t begin to answer: How will Muslims around the world interpret it…

Today’s N&O story by Jay Price and Mandy Locke captured a telling vignette from the competing political rallies by the “Spending Revolt” bus tour and Organizing For America: Both featured videos of President Obama. It reminded me of a…

A few years ago the Department of Health and Human Services set out to reform mental care and wrecked it. Next it set out to reform in-home care for Medicaid patients and wrecked it. And, now, itâs got…

Now, Gary, that’s what I call a reasonable response. And you’ve raised a good question: Does building the mosque at Ground Zero make it easier or harder to win the War on Terrorism? The theory that building the mosque…

For the fourth consecutive decade, Republicans are “pledging” to cut taxes and cut spending. Ronald Reagan made the pledge in the 1980s. Newt Gingrich made it in the 1990s. George Bush made it in the 2000s. And now it’s…

The school board down in Johnston County has a problem: Every time fourteen-year-old Ariana Iacono walks through the door of her school with her ‘stud’ in her pierced nose she gets suspended – but she simply won’t give up. She…

Well, Carter, to be fair, I didn’t call you “a bigoted skunk.” I’ve grown more mellow these days, and I try to avoid name-calling. Instead, I said your ad for Renee Ellmers was “an appeal to anti-Muslim prejudice.” I…